


The Best Defense

by Shawarmerei (livefromarkham)



Series: Those Who Fall [2]
Category: British Actor RPF, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies) RPF
Genre: A bit more reinforced D/s here, Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Fallen!Hiddles, I consider this an accomplishment, Loki is less angsty!, M/M, Mortal Loki, Sub!Loki, Tom is a little less scary this time!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-28
Updated: 2013-03-28
Packaged: 2017-12-06 18:13:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/738633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livefromarkham/pseuds/Shawarmerei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some new discoveries are made about Loki's mortal state of being, and Tom has a bit of fun with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Best Defense

**Author's Note:**

> Why do I sequels. So many things left to finish and this is what I work on instead. Ugh. I should be writing The Fool, or Monsters and Magic, but instead I write this. I hope you all enjoy it.

The longer he stayed with Tom, the more Loki understood why the angel had allegedly fallen. Most of the time, he was very kind and respectful, going out of his way to make sure Loki was comfortable. But every once in a while, whenever Loki would act out of line, Tom would turn into something entirely different and absolutely terrifying. No matter how many times it happened, the fear was new, fresh, and unparalleled. Still, Loki had never been good at keeping himself under control, even when he was punished severely, so it continued to happen. It didn’t seem like Tom really _wanted_ to scare his guest, but Loki was certainly making it difficult to do anything else.

Still, there was something in his glare when he got angry, something in the bare disapproval of his expression with not a hint of sympathy or affability that Loki found arousing. Perhaps it was the way the blue in his eyes seemed to burn. Perhaps it was a defiant part of him that was turned on by Thomas’ displeasure. He wasn’t really sure. No matter what it was, it made his heart race and his pants tighten uncomfortably. This was, of course, all in addition to the paralytic fear, but Loki knew that Tom could be a figure of purely awe-inspiring beauty if he so chose. He was just choosing not to, since Loki kept acting up.

This all changed, of course, when Tom came through the door one day with his wings wrapped around himself so they’d fit through the frame, shining like he always did. It had been so long since Loki had seen him like this and not been afraid. The book the dark-haired man had been reading slipped from his hand and dropped into his lap as he stared at Tom, who looked at Loki and frowned. “Listen to me, Loki,” he ordered, and the mortal couldn’t stop himself from nodding. Not that he was particularly certain he wanted to. “You are going to do as I say without question for the rest of my day. As soon as I say it, you do it. No talking back, no resisting. Understood?” Loki nodded again, a bit slower this time. His head felt warm, and a bit fuzzy. He couldn’t remember what he was supposed to be doing.

Without warning, Thomas dropped to his knees, his wings finally unfurling to reveal a gaping wound in his side. “Good,” he said, hacking up a bit of blood onto the carpet as well. “Because I’m going to need your help.” His shoulders sagged, his wings vanished, and his light went with it. Loki blinked, took half a second to clear his head, then went over to Thomas to help him, not caring anymore whether he got blood all over his crisp white shirt. Thomas was in danger. He was hurt. That was what was important.

“What have you allowed to happen to you?” Loki asked after he’d gotten Tom’s shirt off, his voice barely more than a whisper. “It appears as though you were hit by a wild animal. Something feral.” He disinfected the area just in case, then put two of his fingers to the edges of the wound, pressing gingerly and focusing on his magic. As the sparks pouring out from his fingers began to knit the wound’s flesh back together, he looked back up at Thomas’ face. He looked tired, defeated. “And why did you enter in your celestial form? I was under the impression that you did not wish for anyone to see you like that.”

Tom coughed again, luckily without blood this time. “Another angel. Like me, cast down, but with a far worse attitude. Didn’t like how I was handling things. Only way for me to get away was to fly, and the only way for me to stay conscious long enough to get to you was to stay in that form. I didn’t want to do it, but I might’ve died otherwise.” He looked down at the healed area, watching as Loki cleaned up the dried blood with a wet washcloth. “It seems you’ve done this before.”

Loki smiled ruefully and shook his head. “Too many times with Thor. I always had to tend to his wounds when we were out in the realms. I rarely sustained wounds. I would stay back from the battle. When I did, however, he was to treat me just the same. It wasn’t quite as fast, but he was still good at it when the situation required.” He smiled as he watched Thomas—his Thomas—run his fingers over where the wound used to be, testing it for tenderness. “I try to make very sure that if I’m using magic to speed up the process, I’m going to do it right,” he added.

“You’ve done well, Loki,” Tom replied, smiling. “I’m very grateful your father allowed you the use of your magic back.” 

Loki shook his head again, this time in confusion. “He did no such thing. In fact…” Looking down at his hands, he flexed his fingers tentatively. “I am not sure how I performed it at all. I should not have been able to use it. I was under the impression I was entirely mortal for my stay here.”

“As was I.” Tom’s brow furrowed in thought as he sat up. “It may have been the order. Angelic intervention or a serious need may override it. I’m not sure. I’ve never seen you use magic down here before, so I don’t know how we’d know. We could test it,” he offered, giving Loki a shrug.

The former god made a face of utter disgust. “I would prefer not to,” he replied, but by the time the words were out of his mouth, Tom had already said something that didn’t quite process in his mind. The next thing he knew, he had light and fire and ice dancing at his fingertips, meshing together and morphing constantly. As soon as he seemed to realize they were there, however, they vanished. Thomas made an impressed face. “What have you done to me?” Loki asked, and Thomas laughed.

“I was just following up on what I did earlier. I figured it’d be worth a shot. It looks like I can override Odin’s orders. Maybe because of my divine status, I don’t know. Maybe he designed it that way. I’m not about to go and ask. Now we know it’s by order and not in an emergency, though, so you don’t need to go trying to light your fingers on fire in the middle of a catastrophe, since it probably won’t work.”

“I don’t understand why I would do that anyway,” Loki muttered under his breath. “It would be a waste of my time.” He paused, then looked intently at Tom, who was doing his best to stand. Though unsteady, he looked like he was already regaining his strength. “Thomas, I have a question.”

“To which I may or may not have an answer.” Leaning on the counter, he looked over at the former god with concern. “You don’t want to leave, do you?”

Loki shook his head. “No. I was… wondering. Were you planning on sending me up against that other being?”

Much to Loki’s surprise, Tom burst out laughing. “You—you thought I’d send you up against a divine being alone when you don’t have your own powers back? Loki, I’m not like you. I don’t usually retaliate. Especially not under these circumstances. What we’re going to do is back off and tend to wounds first, and then if they attack again, we’ll see what we can do to defend ourselves.” 

“But then it will surely slaughter us when it attacks again, Thomas!” Loki exclaimed. “This creature does not fight fairly. It is only sensible that we do the same in return, or we will perish when it tries to attack again.”

Tom thought this over for a while. “You do have a point,” he said, sighing, “and you would have a pretty good grasp of unfairness. Fine. If you can formulate a plan to find them and neutralize them— _not_ kill them—then I’ll agree and we can go end this problem.”

Loki smirked, and got to work right away.

 

He’d made a miscalculation.

Tom lay bleeding on the ground, his breathing labored. There was nothing Loki could do about it. Not now. He was powerless, having already had what little magical ability he still had drained from him. His enemy stood laughing not far from him, reveling in his victory.

“I suppose it’s fitting that your little pet couldn’t support you, Thomas? You did always pick the weak ones. He’ll probably die without you. Poor little mortal.” He took Loki’s face in his hands, his grip strong enough for it to be difficult to struggle.

“Loki.” He turned as best as he could to look at Tom, who was just barely rising so he could make eye contact, his wings unfurling once more. How anyone could be so perfect was far beyond Loki. Tom coughed, winced, then looked back up to him and murmured a single word that Loki was barely able to catch, a command he could not resist.

“Kill.”

Then everything went dark.

When his vision brightened once more, the first thing he saw was Tom. He had a few gashes on him, but the angel looked nearly impeccable. Nothing was so much as scratched. “Did I do well?”

Tom laughed. “Yes. You did very well. You defended both of us incredibly well and healed me afterwords, though you refused to heal yourself for some reason. Wouldn’t even speak. I don’t know what happened, really. I just gave you the one command, and you… seemed to fall into a sort of fighting trance. He fought back, but you dodged so cleverly and ended him before he had the time to do any more damage to me. It was astounding.”

“Our people do that occasionally,” Loki responded. “Thor was known to get lost in the heat of battle quite often. We have warriors that do almost nothing but that—berserks, they are called by the Midgardians. I did not think I was capable of it, however. It has never happened before, no matter how many times Odin tried to provoke it in my training.” He huffed a bit, looking frustrated. “I still cannot believe you can accomplish so much more than the All-Father ever managed.”

“I know you better than he did.” Tom smiled at him. “It’s only natural that I’d do better in helping you.”

“But he is the All-Father. He is supposed to be more powerful than you. Yet you have done what he cannot, overridden his commands… I know not how you do this to me, Thomas, but it is truly baffling.”

“To be fair,” Tom started, “you were a god at the time, and now… not so much. Concerning the command thing, I don’t have any idea. I don’t think I’m more powerful than Odin at all. That’d be… terrifying, frankly.” He sighed, relaxing back into the bed. They were in a bed, Loki finally noticed. It hadn’t really occurred to him.  All that had mattered was Tom and his physical state.

“The amount of control you can exert over me is terrifying,” he said, looking around the room. They were in Thomas’ bed. Loki’s wounds were notable, but not something he couldn’t heal on his own with time. Everything else was perfectly in place, pristine in a way he’d never remembered it being. “I thought you said you would not tell me to kill him. That was the only command you gave me.”

“It was the only way we were going to survive,” Tom responded. “I couldn’t allow you to die. And I didn’t really want to perish myself. I thought it would make more sense than most other responses. Besides, I feel a lot of good came from it. We found out some of your capabilities, and I found out a bit more of how far my power over you goes.”

Loki blinked. “Thomas. I was unconscious. I knew not what I did.” His heart raced. What was he talking about?

Tom just laughed again. “Don’t worry about it, Loki. I didn’t do much. Just snuck in a few more commands so I don’t have to go all angel-mode any time I want you to do something. And I did ask you beforehand, and I made you tell the truth, so I do know that you sort of wanted this anyway.”

Though a bit shocking, it was still true. Loki had been harboring a desire to be controlled in ways he couldn’t even fathom for some time now, especially at Tom’s hands. Tom tilted his head, trying to make eye contact with the former god, whose gaze had fallen to the floor. “If you want me to tell you a few of them, I can.”

“Just give me a general idea,” he said quietly, and Tom smiled.

“Of course. There’s one to put you to sleep, since you have trouble with that. There’s one to discipline you when you’ve done wrong. There’s one for praise and one for making you feel better. Since you did so well with the battle thing, there’s one for that. And there’s one for general control, in case I need it for something else.”

“And there’s more than even that?”

“Yes, of course. There are a few that are a surprise. You’ll like those, though. I just want to make sure you’re safe and happy.” Loki nodded, understanding what Tom was going for. He already felt warmer, more peaceful. This mortal—well, not mortal, but whatever he was—was doing a better job of it than Odin himself. Loki found that very amusing, naturally.

When the inevitable came later that night and Loki could not find sleep, Tom seemed absolutely ecstatic to be able to use one of his commands. Loki prepared himself, holding Tom around the waist and smiling up at him as he waited.

The word “sleep” in his mind was barely an echo before it took hold, and he never had the time to process it. But that was fine. He didn’t need to. Tom would give him what he needed. With that, the darkness descended upon him once more, and he welcomed it with open arms.


End file.
